Brooke Wolford

By Brooke Wolford

Social media is a great thing for our business. We are connecting to more consumers than ever.  It’s all fine and dandy. However, is what you portray online the real you?

Recently, I attended a #tweetup.  There were a lot of social media “experts.”  Nowadays, who isn’t an expert?  Many of the people in attendance I had connected with in Twitter and felt as if I really knew them.

The first person I had the pleasure of meeting was Teresa Boardman.  I had been connected to her for a couple of years but had never met her in person. The first thing she told me is, “You look exactly like you do in your avatar.”  I felt confused and glad at the same time. I said, “That’s a good thing, right?”

This made me think of issue #1 in your social media.  Don’t have a fake, glamourshots-style photo of yourself.  While we all want to look good and our best, people should be able to recognize you in person. It’s generally a bad idea to have pictures that only show half of your face or give the impression that you are some supermodel.

When I first signed up for Twitter, I had an avatar of myself wearing big sunglasses that I called my “pimp” picture.  Luckily, Greg Sax gave me gave me advice telling me to change my picture. I was glad I took his advice and changed my picture. More People started to recognize me more in public.

Another thing I noticed at this #tweetup, was that many people acted very different. Some seemed very shy. Some seemed like a completely different person that what I had originally thought.  I was very outgoing and made an attempt to talk to everyone in the room.  Many in attendance hardly moved around even though most of us were connected in some social platform.  I didn’t get it.

My point is, don’t hide behind your online image. You need to be yourself so that when you do meet people in person, they feel like you are the same person online as you are in person.  How to you expect consumers to trust you when you are projecting a fake persona to them.  Be who you really are and be confident in who you are.  People generally appreciate a “real” person more.

Brooke Wolford is a real estate practitioner with Edina Realty, Hastings, Minn.  Follow her blog at adventuresinrookierealestate.com.